Art therapy

So I didn't do any painting yesterday as I promised myself, but I did read a little bit of The Web that has No Weaver.

But today when I got up I got cracking on finishing the second painting you can see above, the yellow one. I call it "Grays" or "Lesser Coverts". The top one is called "Myrniong" or "Anguish".

Myrniong or Anguish was began last Winter. I wasn't exactly in a happy head-space. I died my hair black and was feeling slightly emo. I went to the National Gallery of Victoria where they have Anguish by Schenck (see below)

It resonated with me in a goth kind of way. Then, I was driving through Myrniong and it was the most depressing weather and that's where this piece was born. The white area where the sun highlights behind clouds is sort of meant to be halo-like around the bird's head. The background is meant to be a landscape.

The birds - well, birds kind of creep me out. There is a statue in the Docklands (Melbourne) that I really like and I find it a bit creepy.  Here it is:

Grays or Lesser Coverts came about from the scientific anatomical drawings you find in the old Gray's Anatomy texts and also from other biology sketches. I stuck with the bird theme again. Lesser Coverts is one of the labels of the bird's anatomy and I kind of liked it as it made me thinks of "coverting" or "hiding" but not completely. Just slightly hiding from the world, which is kind of what I need to do some times.

The flame yellows and oranges are like a wild bushfire and are moving across the canvas in this slightly engulfing fashion.

Yep, my paintings have two names. I guess that's the kind of crazy thing that an artist would do.

I would call my style a mix of impressionism, abstract, and graphic. I try my very best to draw inspiration from my feelings about things, but not to directly copy anything while I'm creating, I let my brush go where it wants to go. I use acrylic paint on canvas.

So on my bucket list, one of my goals is to have an art exhibition. Maybe this year I'll have enough pieces to fill the little local gallery. I currently have second layer of number three drying as we speak. I'm very excited about this one. It's a different vibe to the first two.